


Perfect Crime

by Carmenlire



Series: Who Is in Control [6]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Loves Magnus Bane, Alternate Universe - Mob, Break Up, Fluff and Angst, Hopeful Ending, M/M, Organized Crime, POV Jace Wayland, POV Outsider, Protective Alec Lightwood, Protective Jace Wayland, Relationship Reveal, Secret Relationship, Supportive Jace Wayland
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2020-09-29
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:54:04
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719366
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Carmenlire/pseuds/Carmenlire
Summary: Jace’s plan had been simple enough: make Alec think he would be busy on his own for the night before doubling back and following his brother to his date at the Ethiopian place.He’d expected to find someone quiet and intellectual, someone Alec could enjoy long silences or deep conversations with. He had not thought that Alec would be head over heels for someone so loud and refined and cunning.Or, Jace finds out.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: Who Is in Control [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1248773
Comments: 58
Kudos: 254
Collections: Favorite Malec Stories





	Perfect Crime

Alec is acting weird.

Jace watches his brother as he reads something on his phone, sees the little smile that curls around the edges of his mouth, the way the lines of tension bleed out of his shoulders for the few heartbeats it takes to type a reply to whatever was on the screen.

Trying to remember the last time Alec looked so free takes more effort than Jace would like to admit. Definitely before Robert was murdered and certainly before Alec earned his own first kill. That was over three years ago now and the truth is, Jace has become used to Alec’s constant frowning, to his surly attitude and the way he’s grown into himself since he became the leader of one of the biggest crime syndicates in New York.

Alec’s come into his own. It fills Jace with equal parts pride and worry to see the way Alec no longer seems to shrink when talking to his men but instead stands tall and uncompromising as he gives orders with every confidence that they’ll be carried out to the letter.

He makes decisions and they are right far more often than not. His punishments are meted out swiftly and without remorse and Jace has lost count of how many men Alec has killed.

There’s so much blood on his own hands, too, that Jace knows will never wash away.

Things are different lately, though. Alec Lightwood, self-professed workaholic, has started disappearing a couple times a week. An hour here, an afternoon there, and when Jace looks at his brother’s calendar, all he sees is a time written in his messy scrawl. 

No place, no clue as to who he’s meeting. Just a block of time that Alec is otherwise occupied. 

Now, Jace would like to think that he’s a great brother, an even better second in command. While he doesn’t go around advertising it, he also considers himself a great people person in all the ways that helps him carry out his job and keep Alec on an even keel.

If Jace didn’t know better, he’d think Alec has found someone else to temper his edges.

When he thinks about it, it’s both appallingly obvious and obviously appalling. Alec hasn’t shown an interest in anyone ever. There have never been schoolboy crushes, lingering looks, wrinkled shirts or faded marks or other dead giveaways. The thought that his brother had managed to find someone for himself now of all times, when he’s working sixteen hour days and is far more used to the shadows than the light makes Jace want to shake himself for entertaining such foolish thoughts.

But then he reconsiders. He thinks about the way Alec’s been carrying himself lately, with a confidence and light that he’s never seen before. There are his disappearances that he never mentions or even alludes too-- Jace wouldn’t have even noticed probably if he hadn’t gone looking for Alec one afternoon and hadn’t been able to find him. 

He hadn’t been at any of his usual haunts-- nowhere at the gym-turned-headquarters, not his favorite coffeeshop, nor at the apartment he’d renovated but rarely slept at. Jace had just about been ready to call in reinforcements, sure that his brother had been kidnapped, when the bastard had waltzed into his office, loose-limbed and looking without a care in the world.

Alec hadn’t mentioned where he’d been, just waved off Jace’s concern with frankly insulting blitheness. Still, Jace had been stunned when his brother, the most stoic Lightwood, had started humming as he reviewed evidence that one of their dealers had gone turncoat for a police precinct on the edge of their territory.

All of which brings Jace to now. Standing outside Alec’s office door, he overhears his brother on a phone call that sounds the furthest thing from business. He’s never been so grateful that Alec prefers to keep his door ajar most of the time because it allows him to hover just close enough to hear his brother sound decidedly enamored.

“Are we still on for tonight,” Alec asks in what, if Jace didn’t know better, he’d define as a flirty tone. He stares gobsmacked at the mostly closed door. When the fuck had Alec developed a flirty tone?

He doesn’t hear what the person on the other end of the line says before Alec’s sighing. It’s not one of his annoyed sighs, though, oh no. It’s one that speaks volumes despite its brevity. It’s the exhalation of stress and tension, like he’s taking his first deep breath of the day and it’s all due to who he’s talking to.

Jace is both curious and wary.

“I’ve never had Ethiopian before,” Alec muses. “You’ll have to let me know what’s good.”

A short pause before Alec’s laughing and it’s not a polite thing. It’s full bodied and completely free. “Get your mind out of the gutter, babe. I’m actually starving and I refuse to let you seduce me before I get food. Not again.”

A softer laugh, a quieter voice, so low that Jace leans closer to the door to hear the words. “Of course I had a good time. I always have a good time with you” His tone turns dry. “That’s not the point. The point is that I have a very healthy appetite-- ruling half the city’s underworld does that to a guy-- and I feel like I could eat an entire restaurant right now.”

A breathless laugh, more fond than anything and then Alec’s replying, “You’re incorrigible.”

It’s just seconds later that they’re saying their goodbyes and Jace straightens as he runs through everything he just heard. Alec called the person on the phone _babe_. There was a particular kind of softness that Jace hasn’t heard from his brother in years, if ever.

Now, Jace knows Alec is an adult and is entitled to both his privacy and his own judgement. Still, he can’t deny an overwhelming urge to know who’s caught Alec’s attention in such a way. It may be over-protectiveness, it might be his own arrogance in thinking-- knowing-- that he knows Alec’s best interests but he need to check out the situation, make sure Alec isn’t making a mistake, that the person on the other end of the phone is worthy of his brother and best friend and leader, who’s deserving himself of only the best.

With that in mind, Jace runs a hand through his hair, regroups, and pushes open the office door to saunter into Alec’s office. 

“Hey bro, what’s up?”

Alec just levels him with a look. “Same old shit, different day. I am thinking of expanding our lines on the Eastern front, though. Thoughts?”

Jace mulls over that little tidbit of information, thinking over their options and potential gains compared to disadvantages. “Disanto isn’t going to go away without a fight,” is what he finally offers.

Meaning back in his chair, Alec folds his hands over his stomach and when he grins, it’s wolfish. “I think he’ll lose most of his bravado when all of his men defect.”

Now that information has Jace standing straighter, eyebrows high. “What the fuck does that mean?”

Looking like the cat who’s caught the canary, Alec replies, “I’ve been in talks with a few of his people. One of his men came to me awhile ago and talked about how the boss is losing it. They think it’s a combination of early onset dementia and Disanto just being a greedy bastard. He’s started skimping on paying his men and when they get a haul, he’s taking double his agreed upon share. There’s also rumours that he’s entering deals that none of his men want anything to do with and that he’s turning a blind eye to some abuse his girls are getting, just so he doesn’t piss off his biggest dealers. Something needs to be done and his men have persuaded me that I’m that something.”

It’s silent in the room as Jace takes his time to digest everything. Taking a seat across from Alec, Jace is surprised that Alec had even entertained people from a rival organization before he realizes that he should have known better. Alec’s always been a gossip and in their line of work, things often hinge on a nugget of information revealed at the right time.

“And you’re sure they’re not just setting you up for a coup of their own?”

Alec smiles but it doesn’t reach his eyes. “I’ve confirmed what they’ve told me independently and Jace--” he blows out a frustrated breath. “Things are a shitshow over there. He’s lost the trust and respect of everyone and the only reason they haven’t ended him alone is because the entire head needs to be cut off and they don’t have a suitable replacement they can agree on.”

Jace raises a skeptical brow. “But they all agree on an outsider? They all think you’re the answer to their problems?”

Shrugging, Alec only offers, “We’re the second biggest organization in the city and if we take over their operations, we’d be damned close to first. I have a reputation for being fair but brutal and it sounds like they need both a firm hand and someone they can look up to. For whatever reason, that seems to be me.”

It makes sense but that just leads to another question. “Why not go to the biggest syndicate then? Directly to the best? Why didn’t they consider Bane?”

Humming a little, Alec considers the question before simply saying, “He wasn’t interested. Apparently, he has his hands full enough and he wasn’t interested in retraining another faction to his specifications. I think he’s expanding his business interests and it’s taking most of his attention right now.”

Jace laughs a little and it borders on a scoff. “Where did you hear that? You know they like to keep their cards close to the vest.”

“You know I have my ways, Jace.”

Deciding he’s had enough with Alec’s cryptic ass, Jace just shrugs before he stands. “I say go for it if you have the time to dedicate to turning them over. I’ll help with whatever you need, but you know this is an ambitious takeover that’ll fall on your shoulders the most. You’ve spent the past few years establishing yourself, Alec. I think you’re ready and Disanto’s value isn’t inconsiderable. Just let me know what to expect when the time comes.”

Alec nods and Jace can see the satisfied gleam in his eye. “We’ll be moving forward then. I expect we’ll start the first stage sometime next month, I’ll need to hold a formal meeting with all of my men and make sure we’re all in agreement and talk strategy with the defectors.”

“Sounds great, bro.” Now, a plan has been brewing during this conversation and Jace finds himself almost tripping over his words as he switches subjects. “Can I have the night off?”

He watches Alec frown in thought. “That was abrupt. Everything okay?”

“I just have a hot date tonight. I know it’s sudden but we just matched earlier and they seem eager, so. Who am I to deprive someone of all this?” Jace waves away his concern with shameless narcissism. It’s an easy enough deflection and Alec is used to it.

“Fine,” Alec answers before fixing him with a look. “You know you don’t have to ask permission, anyway. Your time is your own.”

Jace grins. “Never let it be said that I take advantage of my position.”

Rolling his eyes, Alec just glares halfheartedly. “Get out of my office. Enjoy your date and try not to be so fucking greasy while you’re on it. It’s the world’s biggest turnoff.”

Jace scoffs as he heads toward the door. With one hand on the handle, he gives Alec his best finger guns. “Wrong. My confidence is the sexiest thing about me.”

Alec rolls his eyes so hard Jace briefly worries they’ll get stuck that way. “Leave me alone. I fully intend not to hear from you until tomorrow.”

With a halfass wave, Jace leaves without saying anything else and puts his plan into motion.

This was _not_ what Jace had expected when he’d overheard that phone call a few hours ago.

This being his brother, always so cold and clearheaded, out on the fucking town with one Magnus Bane.

Their biggest rival and all around considered to be New York’s biggest bastard.

Slumping from his tiny booth in the corner, Jace holds the menu up to his face as he covertly stares at his brother laugh and flirt and blush in the company of Bane. He still can’t wrap his head around the fact that the man who’s grabbed Alec’s attention isn’t a harmless librarian or nerdy professor but one of the most influential, dangerous people in the city.

Jace doesn’t think about how Alec would be considered just as dastardly in different company.

For god’s sake, they’re holding hands over the table. Though Jace is too far away to hear their conversation, he watches as Alec says something and if he didn’t know better, he’d say Bane is blushing himself in answer.

They’re at a simple restaurant, cozy and charming with delicious smells emanating from all around. Jace had almost gagged as he’d seen Magnus round the booth to sit next to Alec as he explained the menu in what looked to be far too much detail.

Jace’s plan had been simple enough: make Alec think he would be busy on his own for the night before doubling back and following his brother to his date at the Ethiopian place. Thankfully, Jace could be extremely discreet when the need arose and he knew Alec well enough to hide all of the usual tells his brother would be attuned with.

He’d expected to find someone quiet and intellectual, someone Alec could enjoy long silences or deep conversations with. He had not thought that Alec would be head over heels for someone so loud and refined and cunning.

Jace doesn’t know what to think.

He’s startled out of his thoughts as a waitress walks up to him and asks for his ordered. Having not even looked at the blasted thing since he’d been seated, Jace’s dazed eyes scan over the menu quickly before ordering the first thing that registers. The waitress leaves quickly and Jace turns his attention back to the sickening scene in front of him.

Alec is laughing and looks so carefree-- more so than Jace thinks he’s looked since he was a kid. As he watches the two of them on a date, in their own little world, Jace wonders if it doesn’t make a kind of sense.

Suddenly, a lot of things make sense.

He remembers a few months ago when Alec really had been kidnapped, when Jace had arrived to one of Aldertree’s warehouses frantic and ready for blood only to find his brother not unscathed but whole enough.

So clearly, he remembers thinking how extraordinary it had been for Alec to have killed all the men and escape with a few busted ribs and a minor concussion. He remembers the shiver that had trailed up his spine as Alec had walked to the car, when Jace had taken in the carnage and felt eyes on him, the eerie whistling that he’d told himself was his mind playing tricks on him after the adrenaline surge of thinking Alec was in danger.

He should have known better, really.

Trying to resolve the events of that day with all the evidence that’s been piling up along with what’s right in front of his eyes right now and Jace thinks he must be an idiot.

He also think his brother is playing with fire and it’s only a matter of time before it burns down the whole damn thing they’ve been building since that horrifying summer night that feels like a lifetime ago.

Jace knows his brother better than anyone and even though this is the first time he’s seeing this side of Alec, it’s easy enough to define.

His brother is in love. Jace sees the brightness in his eyes, the flattered flustered look on his face when Magnus no doubt flirts with him, teases him with an ease that’s well-known and well-honed.

As he follows them out of the restaurant-- barely tasting his own food-- he ducks behind a flower bush in the park when Alec and Magnus come to a stop near a lone street light.

Wrapping his arms around Magnus’s middle, Jace feels like a voyeur as he sees Magnus wrap his own around Alec’s neck. Their voices are low in the solitude of the park, in the quiet of a night growing late, but their easy intimacy is obvious in the way their conversation flows with an ease that’s surprising before Alec is leaning forward, before Magnus is tilting his head up, and then they’re kissing.

It’s soft and slow and Jace has seen enough.

Alec has never been selfish or careless but Jace thinks there must be a first time for everything. All he can see is calculation in Magnus’s eyes when he pulls Alec closer, manipulation as he banters and flirts and wraps his brother around his finger with every word he speaks, casting a spell over Alec.

He doesn’t blame his brother for falling for Magnus. Still, Magnus’s reputation precedes him and Jace swore when they were kids, that he’d always have Alec’s back.

Quickly and with the stealth he’s known for, Jace leaves the lovebirds to it and can’t help but wonder when their house of cards will come crumbling down.

A few months later and things aren’t exactly going to plan-- with anything. Alec is still disappearing, still in a great mood-- unless they’re talking about the consolidation of Disanto’s syndicate.

It’s taking much longer than either of them had estimated to gain a foothold. Disanto had become increasingly paranoid and while most of his trusted advisors had been cut loose-- by Disanto himself not by anyone on Lightwood’s payroll-- and the leader was very difficult to meet with. He’d declined every invitation Alec had sent and the takeover was turning into such a headache that Alec looked ready to tear his hair out at any given moment.

Plus, Jace wasn’t blind. The past week or so, Alec had been in an even more godawful mood and he hadn’t seen Magnus. Jace knows the two are related. He just doesn’t know how.

It’s a Monday afternoon and Jace has a large pizza with everything on it and some beer and he’s ready to de-stress with his best friend. He enters through the kitchen in the back, sets the pizza down on the counter and puts the beer in the fridge before he starts toward the living room.

Alec had claimed a migraine and left headquarters while it was still morning. It’s now the early evening and Jace is ready to listen to his brother vent for the next hour while inhaling a truly horrifying amount of pizza between breaths.

When he nears the threshold between the kitchen and the dining room, though, he stops cold at the sound of rising voices.

“What are you saying, Alexander?”

Alec’s voice is devoid of all emotion as he apparently restates, “I can’t keep doing this. I can’t be with you anymore.”

Jace will give it to Magnus, the tremor in his voice is so faint that he almost misses it. “Just like that?”

Jace ducks mostly behind the kitchen wall as he sees Alec walk out into the corridor. “Just like that,” Alec says grimly. “I’m sorry it had to end this way but it's over.”

Holding his breath as Magnus follows Alec into the hallway, Jace can’t help but think that if Bane is acting, he’s doing a hell of a job at it. There are tears in his eyes that Jace just catches and he looks vulnerable in a way Jace wouldn’t guess him capable, holding himself together with a thread that’s quickly unraveling.

“We’ve been together for over a year and this is how it ends? You won’t even give me an answer for this sudden turnabout, darling. Excuse the shit out of me if I don’t go merry into this fucking terrible night.”

“Don’t be so crass,” Alec chides idly and from his vantage point, Jace thinks Magnus is seeing red with the way he stiffens.

“You don’t get to tell me how to talk, Alexander.” He laughs but it’s bitter. “Not now, at least.”

Alec’s facing Magnus-- and Jace who’s hiding behind the apparent ex-lover-- so he sees the coldness in Alec’s eyes, his impenetrable stare.

Alec opens his mouth and in a way that’s only possible after knowing someone so long, Jace knows that Alec’s next words are going to be the kill shot.

“I don’t love you anymore. I never really did, if we're being honest,” Alec says, infuriatingly cool. “You’ve served your purpose. I don’t need you anymore. It’s over, Bane, and now I’ll ask you to leave without embarrassing yourself more than you already have.”

In stark contrast to just a moment before, it’s like all of Magnus’s strings are cut and Jace almost wonders that he doesn’t just slump until he collapses onto the ground. It’s quiet for a long moment before Magnus raises his head an inch, meeting Alec’s eyes, and asks in a dead whisper, “It was all a lie? You were just using me this entire time?”

Now here’s the thing. Jace knows Alec and he knows when his brother and best friend is lying. And right now? Alec’s lying through his goddamn teeth. Jace sees the way each word of Magnus’s is a blow to Alec in the way he’s braced himself, in the slow blink of his eyes that means Alec’s thinking carefully of each word, like there’s a script he’s following lest this entire charade fall to pieces around him.

Magnus pulls himself up to his full height and Jace knows he’s not imagining it as Alec shrinks imperceptibly at what must be a hell of a glare.

“I loved you,” Magnus says calmly and when he speaks now his voice is calm and strong and carries a weight that shows clearly how he became one of the most ruthless men in the city. “I love you,” Magnus repeats and he takes a single step closer to Alec. “But I swear to God, darling, I will forget you.”

Jace isn’t breathing as he watches his brother’s face and the devastation that’s lurking just beneath the surface. Alec doesn’t say anything and Magnus steps around him, toward the front door. 

Alec’s staring at the floor when Magnus stops with the door open. Neither one look at the other as Magnus serves his own kill shot. “When you first took over from Robert, I thought there was something different about you, something your father lacked. A heart.” His voice drops lower, menacing in its condescension, as he continues, “But now I see that you’re just like him. Worse than the shit on the bottom of my shoe. Not worth my time. There might be a day when you need my help, Lightwood, and I want you to know what my answer will be when it comes. No. I will look at you with nothing but pity and I will tell you to go to hell. I will happily send you to your ruin, know that.”

Magnus laughs a little and Alec shudders, out of Magnus’s view. “We’ll see if you’re as pathetic as Robert was when you beg me for help anyway. Until then, goodbye Alexander.”

Magnus leaves and Alec steps over to the wall, bracing his arms as he leans forward, trying to catch his breath.

Jace knows he should go, should act like he was never here in the first place but Alec is hurting and he’ll never be able to ignore that.

He steps out from where he’d been hiding but Alec doesn’t even notice, totally focused on what must be total devastation. Not knowing where to start, Jace cuts to the heart of the matter in the way he does best.

“You lied.”

Alec’s head shoots up and he stares at Jace with wide, red-rimmed eyes. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

Deciding to play the indifferent asshole card, Jace shrugs. “I brought pizza and beer over but it looks like I missed the party.”

“Go to hell, Jace.”

Jace just lifts an unimpressed brow. “Bold words when you look three seconds from bawling your eyes out.”

Alec’s expression clears just enough for anger to take over. Jace watches him dispassionately as he takes a breath, trying to settle the rage that must have started licking up his spine. “Maybe you didn’t hear me,” Alec says evenly, pushing away from the wall and coming to stand in the middle of the hallway. “Get the fuck out. Leave me alone. I don’t need you right now.”

Acting like he didn’t hear, Jace leans against the wall in a way that he knows ruffles his brother’s feathers. “So, Magnus huh? I don’t blame you for ending things. I can imagine that’s a lot to handle.”

Alec glares at him so coldly, Jace almost rears back. “You don’t get to talk about Magnus like that. Shut up Jace,” Alec warns softly. “You don’t know what you’re saying.”

Jace doesn’t move, doesn’t say anything for a long minute. The two of them stare at each other, and Jace decides he’s kicked Alec enough when he’s already down. “Here’s what I know,” he starts softly. “I know you’ve been happier the past several months than I can ever remember. I know you love Magnus and that you just lied to his face when you ended things, that you ripped out your own heart at the same time. Here’s what I don’t know-- why?”

Raking hands through his hair, Alec just mutters, “I need a beer.”

He stalks past Jace into the kitchen, and goes directly to the fridge, drinking half a beer before Jace even has time to reach for his own.

The two of them sit down at the counter and eat cold pizza mostly in silence. It takes awhile for Alec to stir and when he does, all he says is, “I had to break his heart to save his life.”

Jace doesn’t react, merely asks, “Okay. What does that mean?”

Sighing, Alec pushes away his empty plate. “Disantos has become dangerous, Jace. I don’t know how but it looks like you’re not the only one who knew about us.” He swallows hard. “Disantos came to me-- you didn’t know about it because he swore me to secrecy, said he had information on Valentine that he would only hand over if he could be assured that I was alone.”

Jace hums noncommittal. They’ll come back to Alec’s lack of faith in him later. “That doesn’t explain why you think you’re doing the right thing here, Alec.”

Taking a shuddering breath, “Disanto’s been tailing Magnus and when we met, he told me that he actually has ties to Valentine, that he’s under his protection and that Valentine has access to Bane. He knows about the damned coup, about his men's betrayal, and gave me an ultimatum. Unless I call off my takeover and keep my distance, they’ll go after Magnus.”

Alec turns to face Jace and there’s such devastation there that Jace almost starts tearing up himself. “I’d rather have him alive and hate me than to not have him around at all, Jace. You know Valentine, you know what he’s capable of. There’s no way I’m giving him any reason to make Magnus a target.”

“So what,” Jace says. “You’re going to be miserable forever just so Magnus won’t get killed by a bad guy? Alec, that’s our life. If it’s not Valentine, it’ll be someone else. Magnus knows what he signed up for with this life and you should know that, too. Sometimes you can’t protect the ones you love but does that mean you shouldn’t love at all?”

“Emotions are nothing but a distraction, Jace.” It’s obvious that Alec tries to be hard but he’s still so dejected that the words are more of a plea than anything else.

Jace scoffs in his face. “That’s bullshit and you know it. Robert was an asshole; you should know not to listen to anything he had to say. What about me,” he demands. “Do you think we’re too close? That I’m a liability? That I can’t take care of myself if need be?”

Alec closes his eyes. “It’s different and you know it.”

“Do I,” Jace counters evenly. 

“You’ve been my best friend, practically family, since we were kids. We always said we’d be together.”

Jace looks at him, mouth tilted in a sly hint of a smile. “Are you telling me that you and Magnus haven’t talked commitment? I can’t believe that.”

Looking frustrated, Alec snaps back, “How are you so calm about this? I thought you hated Magnus.”

Jace hums, thinking about his answer. The truth is, he’s disliked Bane since he first heard about him, especially since he’d learned that the man had gotten his devious little nails into his brother. But while Jace might not like to admit it, he’d be a dumbass not to. He’s seen how happy Bane makes his brother. He’s seen the unconscious affection the few times he’s tailed them on their dates, and just now tonight-- Magnus’s heart had been thoroughly smashed.

Maybe he judged too quickly, Jace thinks wryly. He has to wonder if he’s not letting prejudices against the Bane syndicate from previous generations fuck with the here and now.

_Maybe I’m not the only one who needs to forget Robert’s lessons_ , he supposes.

“You love him,” Jace finally answers. “From what I’ve seen, Bane loves you too. All I want for you is to find whatever happiness you can in this life you’ve chosen for yourself. Did I think you were being reckless when I found out? Sure. Did I wonder if you weren’t thinking with your dick? Of course. But I’ll be honest, bro. I’ve known about you two for months and the other shoe has yet to drop. Especially seeing how you feel without Magnus, I’m willing to give the man the benefit of the doubt.”

“Thanks, Jace,” Alec says softly. “That means a lot.”

Then he groans. “What you said made sense,” Alec admits, which Jace knows had to be a herculean task for him. “But that doesn't erase the fact that even if I’m willing to gamble with his life-- I just made him fucking hate me. This isn’t even the first time we’ve dealt with this. Fuck, I hate myself.”

“What does that mean?”

Alec takes a deep breath. “A few months into dating, Magnus tried to break up with me because Valentine was getting to close. He sabotaged that Hell’s Kitchen project and when I confronted him, he tried to act like it had always and only been business between us. I saw through him, though. Wouldn’t let go until he finally broke and admitted his plan. We said back then that we were stronger together, that we wouldn’t let either of our protective instincts take over again, that we would talk through things. And now I did the same thing Magnus did.”

Jace moves closer, blames the half dozen beers for this turn of events. Rubbing a hand over his shoulder, Jace tries to rally them. “Well, at least Magnus will understand where you’re coming from. Not gonna lie though, you seriously fucked up.” Before his brother can tell him to fuck off, Jace keeps going. “Tell me how.”

Alec frowns. “Why do you want to know?”

“If you’re going to go groveling back to Magnus, you’re going to do it properly. I know you’ll be annoyingly sincere but Magnus isn’t a fool and he’s so angry right now that just getting him to talk to you might be impossible for awhile. So when you do talk to him, you’re going to have to lay all of your cards on the table-- acknowledge you messed up, acknowledge what you did wrong, promise never to do those things again, and hope by the grace of God that he takes you back. And from the sounds of it, you both need to have a talk and stop being such self-destructive disasters. So. How did you fuck up, Lightwood?”

Swallowing hard, Alec’s gaze turns toward the counter. He picks at the edge of the pizza box as he starts. “I guess I didn’t talk to him. That’s the biggest thing. It’s been bothering me for awhile and Magnus knew something was wrong but I brushed him off every time he asked.” He laughs but it’s humourless. “I said I had it handled.”

Nodding encouragingly, Jace prompts, “What else?”

“I made a decision alone that affected both of us. I-- I thought that I had it all figured out and I didn’t take Magnus’s thoughts or feelings into consideration.” He blows out a breath. “Honestly, I pretty much acted on instinct. Magnus was threatened and I made the fastest decision I could that would save him from harm, regardless of the consequences. It was blind panic and while I know that I can never act like that in my position, with Magnus I didn’t even stop to think. I was so mad when he pulled this shit but now I understand. I feel like such an idiot.”

Jace sighs himself and thinks that his brother has gotten himself into a hell of a situation while trying to do his best. It’s par for the course for them but it still hurts to see Alec make a mistake. And while Jace won’t say it out loud, he wonders if Magnus will ever speak to Alec again-- let alone welcome him back. It gives him hope that both Magnus and Alec seem to fuck up in such similar ways. Hopefully that proves to be Alec’s saving grace in this mess.

That won’t really help Alec to hear though so Jace keeps his game face on. “Anything else you need to beg forgiveness for?”

Alec’s expression sours at his choice of words and Jace remember’s Magnus’s little parting shot, wincing himself. Still, Alec rallies. “I guess I just want to tell him that I’m so sorry I hurt him, that I didn’t mean anything I said today, that I was trying to protect him, albeit in the most ass backwards way I could think of. That he’s his own person and I should have gone to him and we could have worked together-- and that I love him more than anyone in the world and that I’ll do whatever it takes to earn his forgiveness.” Alec’s voice is much quieter but no less full of conviction as he adds, “Or I’ll respect his decision if he doesn’t forgive me or want anything to do with me as long as he knows the truth.”

Looking at Alec, looking so dejected, Jace sighs and hauls him in for a hug. “Ah hell, Alec, you sure do know how to get yourself into messes, don’t you?”

Jace keeps patting his back and doesn’t say anything as Alec’s voice wobbles in his shoulder. “He’s my world, Jace. I thought I was doing the right thing, the only thing I could do, but you showed me I was just being a shortsighted ass. God,” he tries to laugh, though it comes out much closer to a sob. “I don’t think I could take it if he didn’t forgive me.”

“It’ll be okay, Alec.” Jace tries his best to be comforting, to be the shoulder his brother needs even as he’s not quite so sure they’ll make it through this. He’s never seen his brother so devastated. He remembers the look in Magnus’s eye though, when they kissed in the park all those months ago, when Alec broke his heart just a few hours ago.

He knows Magnus is hurting just as much as Alec. With Alec’s sincerity and the way it’s so obvious that Magnus is it for him, Jace thinks they’ll find their way back to each other.

It might take time but Alec’s always been patient and steadfast when it counted.

Pulling back a little, Jace pretends he doesn’t notice the tear tracks on Alec’s face. “Okay bro, Operation Win Magnus Back is officially commenced.”

Alec scrubs his hands over his face. “You think I can do it?”

Smiling, Jace looks at his brother. The man who tries so hard to be good even when by very definition he’s anything but, the leader and brother and son who accepts responsibility to a fault, the man who’s only fallen in love once but found a hell of a match on his first try.

“Oh Alec,” he says with a bolstering, little grin. “I have no doubt.”

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on tumblr or twitter @carmenlire!


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